Former IDF chief of staff predicts post-Assad Syria could be positive for Israel if not aligned with Iran, Hezbollah.

A strike on Iran is “not needed tomorrow morning,” but Israel does need to
present a credible military threat alongside sanctions and diplomatic action,
former IDF chief of staff Lt.-Gen. (res.) Gabi Ashkenazi said on
Sunday.

Speaking at The Jerusalem Post Conference in New York City,
Ashkenazi said the right strategy was to continue the economic crackdown on Iran
as well as actions that take place “under the radar.”

“I think we still
have time. It is not tomorrow morning,” Ashkenazi said. “It is better to
persuade our friends in the world and the region that it is a global threat and
[the government] has done a good job on this. In any case, Israel needs its own
capability since we cannot [live] under an [Iranian] nuclear umbrella,” he
said.

“We need crippling sanctions and much more severe sanctions. It
might now be too late and too light and it needs to be supported by a credible
military threat,” he added.

Former prime minister Ehud Olmert, also
speaking at the The Jerusalem Post Conference, said there was still time to stop
Iran with sanctions and diplomacy.

Olmert said that the United States
needed to lead the international efforts to stop Iran. He slammed the Israeli
government for clashing with US President Barack Obama over the peace process
with the Palestinians.

“There is enough time to try different avenues of
pressure to change the balance of power with Iran without the need for a direct
military confrontation with Iran, and now is not the right time [for a military
strike] which may not lead to the right outcome that is needed to ensure the
security of the State of Israel.”

Speaking out against Defense Minister
Ehud Barak’s assertion that sanctions will fail, Olmert said that there was
still time before military action would be needed. He also criticized Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s comparison of Iran to Nazi Germany.

“I am
not certain that when we speak loudly it is more helpful than when we speak
privately and quietly with the leadership of those countries,” Olmert
said.

“It is not a good strategy to fight with the [US] president,” he
said. “Israel needs to support and respect the president and not fight with
him.”

Booed by the crowd in New York, Olmert said Israel needed to make
concessions to the Palestinians in peace talks to gain legitimacy in the
international arena. Olmert also said Israel did not need to hold on to Arab
parts of Jerusalem in a peace deal and to retain a Jewish majority in the
capital.

“I am not certain that when we talk about Jerusalem and the
indivisibility of Jerusalem, do we mean in real terms, and how significant it is
for the future of the State of Israel and the Jewish character of the city of
Jerusalem that Arab parts that were technically added to the city limits will
forever remain part of Jerusalem,” Olmert said.

Turning to the ongoing
upheaval in the Middle East, Ashkenazi revealed that former Egyptian
intelligence chief Omar Suleiman visited Israel two months before Hosni Mubarak
was toppled and predicted that either he or Mubarak’s son Jamal would succeed
the president.

Ashkenazi said that someone in the room asked Suleiman how
he could be certain that the transition of power would occur as he said. He said
that Suleiman stated that it did not matter who voted but rather “who counted
the vote.”

The possible downfall of Syrian President Bashar Assad could
be a positive change for Israel, since any regime which succeeds would not be
aligned with Iran or Hezbollah, the former IDF chief said on
Sunday.

“Most of the weaponry that Hezbollah posses comes from Syrian
depots, and the money from Iran,” he said.

However, he shied away from
predicting whether and when Assad will fall. The international community’s
failure to take “tangible action” was like giving Assad a “license to kill,”
Ashkenazi said.

Turning to the threats against Israel, Ashkenazi said
that Israel was no longer facing a clear enemy as it did during the Yom Kippur
War in 1973.

“In Yom Kippur it was simple. We had to mobilize. You
saw the borders, the fences, minefields, and there was attack and defense,” he
said.

“Today war is different. You still need to mobilize,” but when you
go to the battlefield, “you raise your binoculars and you don’t see the enemy.”